President Theodore Roosevelt feared “untold misery…with the certainty of riots which might develop into social war.” He felt something must be done. The operators, on the contrary, showed extraordinary stupidity and bad temper. The bill was signed in response to the Great Anthracite Strike of 1902. 200 Constitution Ave NW ", Wiebe, Robert H. "The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902: A Record of Confusion. The employees selected three members and the employers three members. Roosevelt appointed a commission to help negotiate terms of a settlement, which […] The operators rejected the offer. He told his Attorney General and Secretary of War that strong action might be an "evil precedent," but he would run the risk of impeachment rather than expose the Nation to chaos. They rejected the offer of the coal operators for a special train and visited mines selected jointly by the opposing parties. ." He had installed George Baer, who spoke for the industry throughout the strike, as the head of the railroad. . The strike was evidence of the effectiveness of trade unions ....54. While the operators refused to recognize the United Mine Workers, they were required to agree to a six-man arbitration board, made up of equal numbers of labor and management representatives, with the power to settle labor disputes. Weibe, "Anthracite Coal Strike," pp. The law had not yet been applied when a new Federal policy erupted from the industrial warfare in the coalfields in 1900 and 1902.7, The groundwork for the 1900 anthracite coal strike was laid by the unexpected results of strikes in the bituminous or soft coalfields in 1897. Roosevelt then appointed E. E. Clark, head of the railway conductors' union, as the "eminent sociologist," a term that Roosevelt doubted Clark "had ever previously heard." It was the first labor dispute in which the U.S. federal government and President Theodore Roosevelt intervened as a neutral arbitrator. Roosevelt wanted to intervene, but he was told by his Attorney General, Philander Knox, that he had no authority to do so. He appealed to the patriotism of the contestants to make "individual sacrifices for the general good. A spontaneous uprising had forced many mine owners to sign a contract with the United Mine Workers. 361-62. When George Baer, spokesman for the operators, received a letter appealing to him as a good Christian to make concessions, he replied that the "rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for--not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country." 342-48, 361. View Coal Strike of 1902.PNG from HISTORY United Sta at Grosse Pointe South High School. . 49. Letter, Roosevelt to Low, Oct. 3, 1902, Roosevelt Papers, Vol. Wright reported that both parties cooperated with his investigation and that sharply different opinions arose out of different positions and not out of misrepresentation. 437-683; Testimony before the Anthracite Coal Commission, 51 volumes in NARG 257; Glueck, Mitchell, p. 274. He worked through the National Civic Federation which brought labor and capital representatives together. III, p. 360. During the dramatic confrontation with the mine operators and workers on October 3, 1902, Roosevelt had said, " I speak for neither the operators nor the miners but for the general public." He also considered nationalizing the mines under the leadership of John M. He had been a distinguished corporate lawyer and was a friend of banker J. P. Morgan. He therefore held in abeyance his decision on publication.21, Newspapers reported that the President had "pigeonholed" the report because it was favorable to the miners. Union supporters brilliantly exploited this "divine right" letter of "George the Last'' and public opinion turned against the operators.24 Perhaps for the first time in American history, a distinguished scholar wrote, a union tied up a basic industry "without being condemned as a revolutionary menace. It enhanced the reputation of President Theodore Roosevelt. By and large, social conditions in mine communities were found to be good, and miners were judged as only partly justified in their claim that annual earnings were not sufficient "to maintain an American standard of living."51. The operators, Roosevelt declared, had no reason to reject conciliation .35, At first, the operators seemed to have won a victory by their recalcitrance. The Coal strike of 1902, also known as the anthracite coal strike, was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. History of coal mining in the United States, Lackawanna County Courthouse and John Mitchell Monument, List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes, Theodore Roosevelt, a Civil War General, and the Battle for Labor Peace, Theodore Roosevelt and His Times: A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement, The role of federal military forces in domestic disorders, 1877-1945, A history of the coal miners of the United States, from the development of the mines to the close of the anthracite strike of 1902, Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition, "Citizenship in a Republic" (1910 speech), "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual" (1912 post-assassination-attempt speech), Theodore Roosevelt Center and Digital Library, Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse, Social and economic stratification in Appalachia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coal_strike_of_1902&oldid=995847184, Labor disputes led by the United Mine Workers, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Akin, William E. "The Catholic Church and Unionism, 1886-1902: A Study of Institutional Adjustment. Mitchell considered that de facto recognition and called it a victory. He was soft-spoken, yet determined. They were reprinted in the periodical, The World's Work and Public Opinion, in 1902. 240-44. The industry refused, on the other hand, to formally recognize the UMWA as the representative of the workers. 117, 126-27. The UMW organized an anthracite coal strike in May 1902, seeking an eight-hour day and pay increases. "48, On October 23, 1902, the 163-day anthracite coal strike ended. ", George, J.E. He first made him recorder of the new commission and shortly thereafter he appointed Wright as the seventh commissioner.47, More important than the incredible maneuvering in the selection of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission was the overriding fact that finally miners and operators alike agreed that all disputed issues should be submitted to arbitration. Attorney General Knox, Labor Commissioner Carroll D. Wright, and Secretary Cortelyou were present.29 Roosevelt "disclaimed any right to intervene" but the "terrible nature of the catastrophe impending" impelled him to use his influence "to bring to an end a situation which has become literally intolerable. [27] The two forces operated in parallel until 1931. 210-11. More than 100,000 workers supported the strike. United States Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, This page was last edited on 23 December 2020, at 05:31. The industry, still smarting from its concessions in 1900, opposed any federal role. "[10] With proper protection, the owner said that they would produce enough coal to end the fuel shortage; they refused to enter into any negotiations with the union. . III, p. 359. - … On October 11, 1902, the two men met for 5 hours on Morgan's yacht, the Corsair, allegedly because newspaper reporters could not bother them there. 47. "The ten men met in my room on October 3,” Roosevelt wrote, "I being still unable to leave my wheelchair." Some 30,000 left the region, many headed for Midwestern bituminous mines; 10,000 men returned to Europe. Letter, Roosevelt to Hanna, Oct. 3, 1902, Roosevelt Letters, Vol. Letter, Wright to Roosevelt, Oct. 6, 1902; Telegram, Wright to G. B. Cortelyou, Oct. 6, 1902; Telegram, Cortelyou to Wright, Oct. 7, 1902; all in TRP; Letter to Crane, 06t. McKinley won by a wide margin. A depression in 1893 forced down wages and, according to a Pennsylvania legislative committee, many miners lived "like sheep in shambles." 51. John Martell, "The Operators' Side of the Great Coal Strike," Collier's Weekly, Oct. 25, 1902, as quoted in Cornell, Anthracite Coal Strike, p. 55. Both sides struck a bonanza as operators raised both wages and prices. to know the facts, and so be able to fix the responsibility. ", Greene, Victor R. "A Study in Slavs, Strikes and Unions: The Anthracite Strike of 1897. "Anthracite Commission Report," pp. The governor sent in the National Guard, who protected the mines and the minority of men still working. 25. 45. 111, pp. 230-34, 236-37. . III, pp. there is certainly right and wrong on both sides." When a Cabinet-level Department of Labor was created a decade later, President Woodrow Wilson wanted to appoint Mitchell as the first Secretary of Labor. 55. He was deeply involved in this strike as well: his interests included the Reading Railroad, one of the largest employers of miners. The political climate had changed between the coal strikes of 1900 and 1902. Although the commissioners heard some evidence of terrible conditions, they concluded that the "moving spectacle of horrors" represented only a small number of cases. "If you or anyone else produced it and ascribed it to a fictitious character all people would unite in saying it was too gross a caricature to possess literary value. III, pp. 9. 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